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A Presentation

A Presentation image
Parent Issue
Day
18
Month
January
Year
1895
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Some fifty years ago or thereabouts, the bar of Calhoun county had painted a fine portrait of Judge Alpheus Felch, which from that time until a few days ago has adorned the walls of their coutüy court house. That bar recently decided to present the portrait to the state of Michigan and to make the supreme court the custodian of the same for the state. Upon Judge Clement Smith, of Hastings, was placed the honor of presenting the painting to the state and below we give by request his presentation speech in f uil. It is as follows: May it picase the court: The fïrf.t term of court f held in Calhoun ro'inty as judge of the fifth circuit, my attention was attracted by a portrait upon the walls of the probate court room, and upon in(uiry of Judge Ingersoll, learned that it had been painted about fifty years, and was the portrait of Judge Alpheus Felch, of Ann Arbor. lie also said to me that Judge Hooker, then chief justice of this court, had suggested that the supreme court would be pleased to have the care of it as the property of the state. To the bar of that county it seemed a very proper thing to do and the matter was talked over by thera and in consultation with the Hon. Wm. H. Brown, the survivor of the bar that procured the portrait, they decided, with his concurrence to present the same to this comraonwealth, to be placed upon the walls of this court room with the portraits of the eminent men who have had so much to do in making the law of the state; and I have been selecteci by the bar to formally present the sanie to you, the honored court of the state, as trustees of the same for the use and benefit of our loved state. I regret very much that the writer of the letter iust read feit that his heajth would not permit him to present this portrait to you in person. It would have besn a pleasure to me, as well as to your honors, to have had him present and to have listened to the dignified and scholarly address he would have made in its presentation, but he is not far away from the milestone reached by the subject of the portrait, and prefers his books and papers and his quiet room rather ihan the scènes of conflict in the Court room, so pleasant to him in the active days of his middle life. ' I need not say to you that I esteem it a compliment and an honor to have been selected by so excei lent a bar as the bar of Calhoun t do s pleasant a service as this. I seems to me the proper place fo this portrait, is on the walls of thi temple of justice and the individua members of the bar, with that sense of justice and propriety, which thej have, in f uil measure, have, withou a dissenting voice, given up the righ and claim they have in it, and the pleasure they had in seeing it in their own court house and by their generous act have made it the property of the state, that it may be known more generally how this honored eitizen of the state looked more than tifty years ago, when he was a judge of this court. The life of Judge Felch has been remarkable: He was upon the bench of the supreme court of the state nearly twenty years before, the war. He was governor of the state in 1845. He was a United States senator from th s state from '47 to '53. When the war of '61 canie upon us he was older than a majority of this court are today, and yet he is still with us, active in many ways and in full possession of his mental faculties. But a few months ago, one of America's many great writers, who had lived to see his eighty-fourth birthday, in writing of his poem, "The Last Leaf," said substantiallv that he was one of the very last of the leaves which still cling to the bough of life that budded in the spring of the nineteenth century and was almost half way up the steep incline which leads towards the base of the new century so near to which he had already climbed. How applicable to the subject of ; this portrait presented to you here today are these words, and it is seldom that they could be so fuily applied as to our distinguished and i honored citizen. Judge Felch has filled many places of honor and trust, and has always tilled them well. It must be a feeling of gratification to him to look back over such an eventful life, so f uil of honors, and feel that he has been a faithful servant of the people, and that no blot has marred his years of faithful public service; but to me, standing here in the presence of this court, I respect and honor, and in looking into the faces of the portraits of the men who have honored the bench of the highest court of the state, as but few states have been honored, it seems to me the strongest element of this man of strength, is his life of purity and loyalty to home and citizenship; and were I to single him out as the model lor the youth of today, I would not dweil so much upon his official life as I would upon his private life, as a husband, as a father, as a friend, as a citizen, and I would holtl that life before theyouth and say: See the splendid consummation of the years of a life of sobriety, of honesty and good habits, and learn the lesson it teaches. But a few months ago, in his home city, there were gathered many of his friends to do hini honor on the ninetieth anniversary of his birth. Araong them were some of the friends of his early manhood. It must have been gratifying to him to have met them in that way. it must be a source of strength to Litu, in his declining years, to look back ovt r his life, woven as it is, not only in the history of this the state of his adoption, but in this loved country of ours, and know and feel, as he had a right to, that not a stain rests upon bis character as a private citizen or in public life, and tiiat none know him but to love and honor him, and that he stands today, as was well said by his friend of more than fifty years, the Hon. G. V. N. Lothrop, "to the rising generation an inspiring model of the true citizen, statesman and patriot." I cannot but feel that this act of generosity on the part of the Calhoun county bar, in presenting to you nis portrait, to be placed here among these honored and loved faces, will bring to his heart and thought another evidence of the regard in which he is held by those who know and love him, and that it will touch a responsive chord in his breast as no other act tending to show to hiin the honor and respect which we all have for him, has. And now, may it please your honors, in behalf of the bar of Calhoun county, I present to you, for the state ot Michigan, this portrait of the Hon. Alpheus Felch.

Article

Subjects
Ann Arbor Argus
Old News